Certain refrigerator appliances include sealed systems for cooling chilled chambers of the refrigerator appliance. The sealed systems generally include a compressor that generates compressed refrigerant during operation of the sealed system. The compressed refrigerant flows to an evaporator where heat exchange between the chilled chambers and the refrigerant cools the chilled chambers and food items located therein.
Recently, certain refrigerator appliances have included linear compressors for compressing refrigerant. Linear compressors generally include a piston and a driving coil. The driving coil receives a current that generates a force for sliding the piston forward and backward within a chamber. During motion of the piston within the chamber, the piston compresses refrigerant. A discharge valve regulates a flow of pressured refrigerant from the chamber.
Pressure pulsations within the flow of pressured refrigerant and noise emitted by the linear compressor are undesirable. Mufflers can dissipate the pressure pulsation and reduce noise. However, mufflers can be expensive to produce. For example, mufflers are generally constructed by brazing individual chambers, and brazing is a labor intensive and expensive process.
Accordingly, a compressor with a discharge valve having features for limiting pressure pulsations within discharge refrigerant would be useful.